


How To Save A Life

by asimplemind (softly_speaking_valkyrie)



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Casual, Cute, F/F, Fluff, Glimmadora - Freeform, Heartache, Heartbreak, Lesbians, Love, M/M, Major Spoilers, Post Angst Fluff, Queer Relationship, Season 3 Spoilers, She-Ra Spoilers, Wholesome, Women Loving Women, not sure what to tag, queer, relationship, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 07:56:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20131993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softly_speaking_valkyrie/pseuds/asimplemind
Summary: Following the Finale of Season 3 and the catastrophe the portal left on both the world and the Princess' Alliance, Adora is incredibly worried about Glimmer. Still feeling the effects of the portal a week on, she and Bow decide they have to help their Princess come back from the brink and get her away from Bright Moon for obvious reasons. The pair take her to Bow's home in an effort to remove her from reminders of the epic loss they all share. Adora struggles with it too, and will stop at nothing to try and save Glimmer from grief.





	How To Save A Life

**Author's Note:**

> Goes without saying but MASSIVE FREAKING SPOILERS FOR THE FINALE OF SHE-RA SEASON 3!!!  
Get the heck away and go watch it right now and then come on back if you need to stop crying, and trust me, you will!
> 
> Final warning! MAJOR SPOILERS!
> 
> In other news that finale had a belated effect but absolutely wrecked me from head to toe and so I wrote this to try and make things better. I can hardly word right now in all honesty.
> 
> Oh, and this fic probably has the most predictable and cliche title I've ever given. Duh.

Bright Moon was empty without the Queen.

The guards were less charismatic and without a presence at all even as they returned to their posts and stood at attention despite the loss the whole keep felt. The staff in all of the wings of the castle kept about their jobs, moving stock and cooking the meals for all. Overall Bright Moon continued, it endured all too quickly, and Glimmer stayed in bed for the days that followed.

Of course, she did, what else was she to do? What else could she do? The throne was completely empty, and the castle was still silent on the matter. The kiss Adora had delivered to her had seemingly totally shattered her and her entire world. Glimmer confined herself to her room and waited for it to somehow blow over her head, to disappear into the background and to get over it somehow, find hope in the future. There was one, she knew that already and so did Adora and Bow, they knew there was something to move on to from this. But in the meantime there was this, there was the silence that followed Queen Angella leaving the world.

Adora looked up at the empty throne with Bow close to her, reaching for her hand when the blonde had to look back to the floor. She couldn’t maintain looking at the throne without Angella sitting upon it. The keep hadn’t adjusted in every many just yet – Adora was one of them.

Bow’s hand felt like a life rope pulling Adora back to her body from the memory of life inside the destructive cataclysm of the portal ripping reality apart. Bow was a reminder to her right now that the real world existed and had been saved by Angella and herself, and that Glimmer was here (albeit not directly here with them) and alive because of that face. Adora looked at Bow when she felt his fingers wrap around hers and forced a pained smile as they turned from looking at the throne.

“Hey...” Bow spoke to her, letting her know he was still there, right beside her as they walked.

“You think she’s up today?” Adora asked back, not wanting to focus or even think about herself at all; only Glimmer mattered.

She’d completely abandoned her jacket now and ripped off the old Horde insignia from her shirt so that the back was a little exposed in a diamond crest revealing her back. And the scars were still there; they always would be even though she’d sustained them as She-Ra. Bow lagged behind just a step and saw them in the corner of her eye as he looked at the back of her head. The scars were deep and still marked Adora’s flesh like paralleled reminders of her own insecurities and shortcomings. Bow had scars too, mostly everyone did, but the scars traced into the flesh of Adora’s back gliding down like menacing tracks into her skin were among the worst of all their battle wounds combined. And they’d be there forever.

“Bow?” She asked, pulling him back to catch up with her as Adora’s voice changed from something akin to self-loathing into determination.

She grabbed his hand again and the firmness of her grip told the artisan that she didn’t really want to let go of it.

“She’s been awake every day, Adora,” he reminded her. Glimmer had eaten and kept herself alive every day since, but hadn’t left her room or invited anyone inside. Adora wanted to change that today. “You really think you’re gonna get her out of the room today? Why today?”

The blonde kept marching around the corner, breathing the only thread of life into the halls and walls of Bright Moon that they had felt in a week. The guards stopped moping when she made headway past them and all stood more attentively when the pair passed, Adora still holding firmly onto Bow’s hand and almost dragging him to keep up with her.

“She’s coming out today because I am not just gonna stand aside and waste around this castle hoping she’ll push past it again. Not again!” Adora barked back to Bow, closing her eyes and tensing all over as she said it.

Glimmer had been in a hole like this before. She’d been captured, tortured and crushed by Shadow Weaver and almost lost at the Battle of Bright Moon shortly after, her powers had fluctuated and her entire life had flashed before her eyes. Back then, Glimmer had been in danger, through the wringer and came back broken, just like she told Adora. She’d refused to give in to fear and she came out stronger than any person in the Princess’ Alliance. Now it wasn’t about Glimmer overcoming a physical threat, an adversary and escaping demise; now it was about her moving past losing the last bastion of her parents she had. It would be about her recognising that she had a role to play in this future they all hoped would follow Angella.

It was about her getting over her mother not being here anymore. Adora couldn’t leave her now, would not give up on her. She was going to be right there beside her even if Glimmer wouldn’t have it.

Whether she thought so or not, or liked it or not, Glimmer needed Adora and Bow, more than anything in the world.

“We’re gonna show her that she’s not alone. That she doesn’t have to be alone and force herself away from everyone while she tries to get with this, Bow,” Adora told him, pulling him beside her as they approached Glimmer’s door, wondering what state the now Queen of Bright Moon would be in and if they should do this now. “We’re gonna show her that we love her more than anything, that this isn’t the end and we’re all in this together – that we can help each other no matter what,” she kept chanting, rather loudly too as if she was trying to reassure herself to come to terms with what had happened.

Bow picked up on it immediately with the way Adora’s voice was already breaking. He tightened his own grasp on her delicate hand and pulling her in closer, his other hand on her shoulder. She didn’t want this to be about her and took a swift breath to centre herself.

“We’re gonna... We’re gonna take her away from here... Here isn’t the place right now for any of us. She needs time without the reminder Angella’s not here and without the temptation to slump in her room.”

“Okay, so where are we going to take her Adora?” Bow checked, trying to sound rational but knowing he was coming across as counter-productive with a grounded mindset.

Adora looked at Bow, finding a solution in his eyes as she pulled him closer by his straps. “We’ll take her to your house! It’s perfect! Your dads said we’re always welcome there! We can cook for her and make sure she has the best damn meal of her life! George said that a fine meal is the first step to curing all your worries!” Adora started riddling off and formulating moment by moment as she pulled Bow increasingly closer to her without the intention of hugging him.

The archer grimaced at the thought and mention of going back home so soon. Even though he loved his fathers dearly and they were completely at terms with his decisions in life, he still felt awkward around them and his friends all. But Adora was looking at him with suck desperate enthusiasm and determination now that he couldn’t help but listen to her and keep with her. Yet behind Adora’s beautiful blue eyes, there was a dam holding back her breaking point along with her tears. He could tell that if this hastily-made plan didn’t go through or if something broke the train, she would break and the guilt would come rising to the surface. Not guilt over Catra and the portal, but guilt that now she somehow felt that it was her own fault Glimmer was left without her mother.

“It’ll be fun, right? We’ll make her some good food, and your dads will wanna bring out more baby photos, and we’ll all laugh right?” She kept asking, the sense of unhinging behind her eyes and cracking voice. Bow couldn’t say anything before Adora snapped herself back to rational thought and the core of her quick plan.

She let him go and struck her fist into the opposite palm, looking at the door again. “We have to get in there, be there for her. We can’t let this break her...” She kept telling herself and Bow.

He pulled her back to look at him again and brought her into a hug, wrapping her up in his strong and comforting arms. She rested her head into the crook of his shoulder and neck, faltering. “I can’t let this break her, Bow.”

“It’s not gonna break me, Adora...” Glimmer’s voice came from the doorway that had opened silently it seemed while Adora had been hugging bow. The smaller Princess was barely out through the ajar door, her dress replaced by a pyjama onesie and rubbing her eyes.

Adora split from Bow immediately and flew towards the slightly duller Princess of Bright Moon. She wrapped up Glimmer in her arms and buried her fingers of one hand into her usually sparkly if not a little haggard hair, with the other palm placed between her shoulder blades under the softness of her onesie. Their hug was heartfelt and with an underlying bombardment of love and warmth, despite the heartbreaking exterior that had taken hold of Glimmer. She was somehow smaller now, somehow colder even on the outside and her sparkles had been dulled to a heartbreaking lull of their former shine. Adora was already gently crying as she held the girl in her arms, feeling and seeing her for the first time in a week, and seeing her pastel colours washed out and looking as if she’d been drowned.

Bow came around them both soon thereafter, giving Adora and Glimmer a moment to be together then coming to them, gently calling the Princess’ name. “Glimmer...”

“I’m okay, Bow. I promise... It’s okay,” she tried to tell them both equally, an edge of serious gravitas in her meek little voice. It mirrored her now childish aura and the small sense of helplessness she embodied.

As they all cuddled in the doorway, Adora’s gentle tears beginning to trickle into Glimmer’s unkempt hair, the smaller Princess couldn’t bring herself to look around the corridors. In an instant, they went from the door to the hanging pendulum basket that was Glimmer’s bed in a less flamboyant flash. It was as if Glimmer’s powers were as dull as her shine now.

The blonde wiped her eyes quickly as the three separated and Glimmer fell onto her back over the edge of the bed a little. She had a small teddy bear in her hand and it was flailing and almost falling. Adora did her best to compose herself but Bow was already laying next to his friend, keeping his hands and his body to himself now. No one spoke for a moment and Glimmer sighed audibly once or twice as she struggled to figure out what to say, hoping the other two could fill the vacant silence with what she’d heard them talking about outside. Deep down, she didn’t want to leave the room for a long time, didn’t want to face the truth and certainly not the empty throne that she knew now existed. She could even see it already in her mind’s eye. The weight of it had been hitting her since she’d stowed herself away, and just how truly empty the throne was now.

“Are you guys... Gonna say anything?” Glimmer had to ask them, had to break the silence or else she thought it would consume all of them. She wished they would be hugging her and filling her with affirmations that she didn’t think she wanted already.

Adora came to the other side of her and her hand gingerly trembled as it wanted to hold Glimmer close again. “What do you want us to say?” She found herself asking, and silently regretting her wordage immediately. She just wanted to do right by Glimmer.

“I don’t know... Anything? Can we just talk about anything as if we’re all normal again?”

“Bow made a new trick arrow, didn’t you, Bow?” Adora quickly tossed to the archer.

“Right!” He sprang, fumbling his words already. “It has a jet in the arrowhead, easy for blowing through lights and small embers so we can stay concealed!” He explained with a little faux joy.

“That’s really great, Bow!” Glimmer feigned in, trying to react as she thought she usually would, but the expression and genuine vigour of her old self could not be contained within, no matter how hard she tried. And she was trying incredibly hard not to think about it.

She sat up again, her face looking as flat as she felt. She’d thoroughly gone through the stages and the phases – complete and total sadness for two days with as much crying, then winded disbelief and waiting for it all to be over, then bargaining that it would return to normal, and then finally landing somewhere else. Glimmer had no clue what emotion or stage of grief she’d landed on today. It felt like acceptance, but both Adora and Bow could tell it wasn’t by the coldness of her exterior and her lack of... everything, anything.

Hands were already holding both of hers when she looked down in the tossed about sheets and pillows of her bedding. Adora holding her free hand and looking at her with a mix of emotions in her eyes and Bow holding onto her teddy with her.

“Do we really have to go?” Glimmer asked suddenly, jumping quickly to their conclusion.

“Yes, we do,” Bow and Adora both told her in unison as they could tell how desperately she needed the help. Glimmer sighed with little to no emotion other than self-pity but knew there was no escaping this.

* * *

“Are you kids sure you have everything?” Lance was asking his son, away from the main kitchen top as Glimmer and Adora prepared the dough for the dishes, the blonde furiously trying to occupy her partner in something, anything. “You don’t want any snacks or anything? Anything at all, you just say son, okay?” The man was fumbling.

“Dad... We’re _in _the kitchen. We’re okay, I think,” Bow tried to stop his father, reaching to touch his hand reassuringly, and forcing a glassy look from the taller father.

George came back into the kitchen and looked towards the women hard at work and yet barely talking to each other. He considered them and almost lost himself in observing what they were doing, and how little noise was coming from them. Humming, the man stroked his scruff of a beard before Lance held his hand. “Sweetie?” Lance asked his husband, even bringing younger Bow to look at his shorter father.

“Dad?” He asked, much quieter than before.

George finally snapped out of his contemplative trance and sighed as he looked to his own family before him. Bow might have been the youngest out of an incredible and ridiculous thirteen but he was George and Lance’s everything and it was a blessing to have him home again so soon. But George couldn’t escape the feeling now instilled in his stomach.

“Something wrong, pumpkin?” Lance asked, gripping his husband’s hand tighter and then holding Bow’s too.

“They’re not talking... At all,” the shorter father told the pair, looking down as if in defeat as he struggled to come up with a solution to hand to Bow to ease things. “Is it okay if I ask what’s happened Bow?” He asked then, suddenly a little more iron-clad serious.

Bow looked away for a moment, back to his two best friends and saw that their usual beautiful banter was completely bankrupt in the kitchen proper. They were hardly moving, apart from Adora glancing to the side every second or so to check if Glimmer was still standing and breathing. She’d changed out of her stale onesie and into some more casual Bright Moon dress robes but her sparkle and shine were totally absent. Of course, it had been easy for his dad to notice.

“It’s Glimmer’s Mom...” He had to come clean, looking even further to the side and avoiding everyone as it actually hit him again.

“Queen Angella?” Lance asked, holding his son’s shoulder and sensing it immediately. “Bow? Are you... Are _you_ okay, son?”

Bow wanted to break too, wanted to give in to the sadness and sense of hopelessness that hadn’t hit him yet but that was certainly lurking. He wanted to get into his fathers’ embrace like he used to as a child and feel their warm bodies and paternal arms envelope him in an ineffable suit of loving armour again. Like Glimmer, he suddenly felt like a child once again. How else were any of them meant to feel when Angella, the most adult of all of them, wasn’t coming back?

The archer had to stay strong, for Glimmer and for himself. He wanted to cry – some tears were even coming out and he wiped them with the bare of his forearm and sucked it all up without Lance or George coming to embrace him as he looked back to Glimmer and Adora. He wanted to remain strong for both of them. They’d lost their maternal head, Glimmer’s mother who’d been a surrogate one for Adora for months now since she’d left the Fright Zone and the tyranny of it, but Angella had been the maternal figure in Bow’s life too. With two dads, she’d filled that space, an additional parent. And she was gone.

“I don’t think so, Dad...” He confessed, to both of them as he made sure his eyes were dry and remained hardy. “But I know I will be, and I know they will be too.”

There was a beat of silence before both Lance and George turned to Bow with eager expressions, especially the taller of the two dads. “So where can we help, son?” George asked, flexing his forearm with ‘lunch’ written in First Ones Language.

Bow looked at them both, gleaming suddenly and rushed to close the short space before hugging both of his amazing dads.

They helped set the table with Bow, while occasionally he did deviate from the small kitchen meal table to the kitchen proper to help prepare the small feast he and Adora had in mind. Lance helped with the more intricate parts of the meal as well as maintained a watchful eye on the oven and stove, surprised that Adora (who had said had no cooking style or skills outside of quick survival meal training from the Horde) could effectively manage so much of it on her own, even helping Glimmer when she needed it. The blonde was adapting quickly and ambitiously in order to help Glimmer – their relative silence soon shifted into helping each other even as so many hands and bodies came into the kitchen. It was a Pot Luck, with other additives, but Adora was territorially particular about how she wanted to run this kitchen before long.

When all was almost ready, she pulled a spoon from the rack and held a lump of the roast out for Glimmer to try, cupping the underneath of the spoon so that there’d be no spillage. “Come on... Taste it, make sure I’m doing it right?” She asked, holding the spoon for Glimmer to sample.

She was still feigning her smiles but there was a hint of natural realness to the one she gave Adora this time. “But you’ve been doing everything amazingly so far. Why not now?”

“Well, I need to make sure my Sous-Chef can keep up quality control, don’t I?” Adora teased gently, her own sparkle feeling and looking a little dim even as she edged a small smile holding the spoon. “What kinda kitchen am I running here, anyway?” She played.

Glimmer obliged her, standing on her tip-toes and lurching forwards an inch to taste from the spoon. Her smile this time was unmistakably real as she embraced and basked in the flavour of the soup-like broth of the roast Pot Luck. The spices and sensations that danced around in her mouth were so perfectly Adora in variety. The herbs and spices she’d chosen were so like her and might not have worked otherwise, or without the meats and savoury additions, she’d made. No one else would have been bonkers enough to try combinations so barbaric but to Glimmer, they were so expertly perfect it was as if Adora had been a master chef in the Fright Zone and had brought her culinary masterpieces to the Rebellion to show them all what good cuisine was.

“Well, what’d’ya think?” Adora asked, a little louder than before.

Her eyes were goofy again and the wideness of her face made Glimmer wish it was the entire world. She heaved forward and wrapped her arms around Adora’s waist so hard and fast that the blonde nearly flailed and knocked over the Pot Luck. But she stabilised herself when she realised Glimmer was warm again, her love shining and the sparkles in her hair glowing faintly under the washed-out pink now having colour returning to it little by little.

“I think it tastes just like what I needed...”

There was a sudden flash of light, and Glimmer returned her face from nuzzling Adora to see Lance holding a camera at them. He was smiling with a toothy grin and pulling the photo from the slit in it. “I thought you two could use one for the album yourselves...” He told them and handed Adora the picture.

“What album, sir?” She asked him, confused.

“The one you’re gonna need to make sure no memories fall through the cracks,” George told them both as he joined them with Bow, offering them one empty photo book for themselves and holding another. “And after dinner... We can see more Baby Bow in the Bubble Bath!”

“Daaaaaad!”

After dinner, and before more baby pictures of Bow, however, Glimmer and Adora took to the rooftop, watching the sunset for the first time in a long while. It was colder again than it had been before and the wind was low and apologetic. The horizon was almost much different from that from Bright Moon and the tree line somehow looked different to boot. Birds were relatively silent and Glimmer was content enough to just rest her head against Adora’s bosom as the blonde held her closely and under a blanket. They both held it closely around each other for warmth and closeness.

Adora couldn’t help but keep looking down to Glimmer as they both observed the slow and uneventful sunset, hoping it was somehow different yet again. In the back of Adora’s mind, she knew she should stop, but it couldn’t happen like this. Glimmer was far too quiet and had been all day while still... seemingly coping.

“You can ask me if you want, Adora...” Glimmer suddenly spoke to break the silence, barely moving at all against her partner as she spoke.

It all seemed helpless now that Glimmer had spoken, and Adora felt compelled to sigh as it all came flooding back to the forefront of her mind. The horror that was the inside of the portal, the twisted and distorted terror of space and time contorting and twisting all around her to deliver a twilight zone of a cursed reality.

The corrupted tone of Catra rang in her ears again as she looked to the sunset and saw the black light pink and black plaguing her body again. And then the way she spoke. The non-docile and twisted contusions of her vocal cords strung across a zeitgeist of horrific and terrifying drones. Looking at her had made Adora utterly instilled with fear, almost paralyzed until she found her unlimited strength again.

_HeeEEEeeeyy aDoRa..._

All of Catra at that point had been a glitch, an infected mannequin of her former self utterly bastardised by the collapsing reality, but with the core of her intact at the base of what coded the pale shade of the imitation. It had managed to free Adora of her guilt over Catra, however – she realised that Catra was rotten away from Adora’s own mistakes... And then Angella...

“Do you... Do you wanna talk about it, Glimmer?”

It took another while, during which Adora could tell merely asking had forced a deep-seated reaction inside of Glimmer, but she wasn’t letting it rise to the surface. There was a long pause and Glimmer sniffled more than once but then wrapped her arms around Adora more for warmth and comfort. She pulled up the blonde’s hand and kissed the back of her palm.

“Not right now... But I will soon, after this passes, I promise,” she told her confidently and gave Adora an affectionate squeeze as they continued to look off to the sunset.

“Oh, okay...” Adora felt herself saying, wishing there something she could at least. “Is there anything I can otherwise? Like right now? Is there anything you need because I’ll do I swear. Anything at all you just say, and I’m right on it. We could get more baby photos of Bow to look at and hold over him for the rest of his life if you wanted!”

Glimmer almost bounced up onto her knees and gripped the broad shoulders of the blonde tightly and pulled her in close for something she desperately did need - a powerful and unapologetic kiss into which she poured all of her affection and gratitude for getting her out of Bright Moon and not giving up or dwelling on it all. The kiss was Glimmer reaching for Adora’s hand and using it to pull herself back, Adora herself acting like the same life rope Bow’s hand had been earlier in the day, and Adora held Glimmer back. Her hands magnetised to the smaller Princess’ waist and she wrapped them around her to hold her close as they kissed all the more. Behind them the sun dipped below the different horizon and almost disappeared in no time, all while Glimmer began to tear up and cry a little into their beautiful and life-saving kiss.

“You can do that,” Glimmer told Adora matter-of-factly and with an almost diva possession to her. “A lot more... If you want... I could use a lot more of that,” she continued, pulling at Adora’s arm around her. “And cuddles, please... A lot of those too.”

“I think I can manage that.”

Glimmer chuckled the tiniest bit, but enough for Adora to take notice and squeeze her affectionately in their little cocoon of the blanket wrapped around them both tenderly. She’d never done this with Catra, and honestly preferred the contact with Glimmer. But there was one thing that popped into her head as she suddenly thought of Catra and the shift in her attitude towards her.

“At least that’s easier...” She mused.

“What is? Hugging me? Pretty easy...”

Adora smiled to herself and cuddled Glimmer all the closer, even shifting so she was practically in her lap. They weren’t thinking about the obvious now, there’d be time for coming to terms with it a little later. For now, they had each other to share the warmth and connection with.

“I mean yeah it is. But it’s not that,” Adora explained, kissing into the poof of Glimmer’s hair coming back to life the more she smiled and embraced Adora around her. “Usually I’d have to punch Catra to make her laugh.”

Inexplicably and rather suddenly, Glimmer burst into giggles with Adora’s arms around her, in disbelief yet somehow not surprised about what her partner had just said. It tickled her and was so Catra, and for some reason now, Glimmer could not refrain from laughing at all. Turning to face Adora once more, the two kissed again before the final curve of the sun had set below the horizon. For there’d be time to come to terms with everything later – Glimmer just wanted this for the moment before she’d have to settle to life without her mother.


End file.
